Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Favela Rising
Afro-Reggae, a wonderful grassroots movement straight from Rio's tough Zona Norte favelas, uses music & dance to build social transformation. The group was profiled in a recent documentary, 'Favela Rising,' which won the best new documentary filmmaker prize at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has announced, the film has a U.S. distribution contract, too. So it should be in theaters next year, courtesy of ThinkFilm and HBO/Cinemax. Check it out when it comes to your town.
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4 comments:
Your thinking and writing are resonant with and highly relevant to a project called "Habitat Jam". Please take a look at www.habitatjam.com and let me know what you think.
The Jam seeks to enable those who've never been heard from before - including those in the favelas, the bidonvilles, the slums - to talk about their cities and what needs to happen given that half the infrastructure that will exist in the world of 2050 will have to be built in the next 45 years. Given that by then, virtually all of the planet's population growth will be in the cities.
fg:
The Habitat Jam session is important.
One caveat, though: these electronic discussions are tilted towards the developed world, or at least to the educated and upper classes. After all, more of us have access to computers and have the technical know-how to participate in these discussions. If you believe in action from below, then some form of face-to-face communication is important.
That being said, sign me up. I'm likely to be in Moscow at the time, but that's the great thing about the web. I can log in from there, too.
Your point about the digital divide is well-taken. We're working hard to overcome that with some incredible support in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
We've signed up the President of the National Slum Dwellers Association of India, among others, to add his voice to the Jam.
I'd love to fill you in in real-time. I'm fiona.gilfillan@habitatjam.com. Looking forward to your contact and to suggesting how your already considerable voice can influence the World Urban Forum agenda in Vancouver.
In case anyone is interested in keeping up with Favela Rising, Anderson Sa, and the AfroReggae movement, there is now a blog covering the film and recent events at http://www.favelarising.blogspot.com.
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